The present invention relates to skirted fishing lures and, in particular, to a silicone rubber skirt, which is adhesively bound to a tubular core piece, and which core facilitates skirt and lure manufacture. The core may include additional filaments or appendages, which appendages may support beaded rattles or other attractants, and the wrapped skirt may also include transverse projections.
Numerous skirt dressings have been developed over the years for a variety of fishing lures. The skirts are used to enhance and exaggerate lure movements of both fresh and salt water lures. The filaments are constructed of soft pliable materials which move in the water. The skirts are typically constructed of a variety of elastomers, plastics and laminated materials.
Depending upon the skirt material, forming techniques frequently vary. For example, large numbers of solid bodied tails and tubular skirts are molded from plastisol gels. This material is very soft and pliable and can be cast at room temperatures in suitable molds. Wide ranges of coloration are achieved through dyes and particulates that are added to the material prior to casting.
A particular limitation or disadvantage of plastisol is that the material is not particularly durable. Over time, the dyes particularly tend to run, fade and/or bleed from the skirts. The material is also sensitive to temperature and protracted exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
Skirts constructed from elastomer or rubber sheet materials are more durable. A variety of rubber skirts are known which are constructed of rolled sheeting having slit filaments. The wraps of the rolled skirt blanks are retained to one another with a fast setting contact cement. Limitations of these skirts are that the rubber does not provide aesthetically pleasing colorations (i.e. the colors are drab and cloudy), the material doesn't readily support suspended particulates, such as glitter, and the rubber exhibits an inherently narrow range of temperature tolerance with checking, tacking or reverting occurring at the extremes. The contact adhesives also deteriorate with protracted use in water.
A particularly preferred material is silicone rubber which is very durable, provides pleasing colors (i.e. the colors are clear and tend to shine) and which holds its color for longer periods of time than plastisol. The material is also resistant to a wide range of temperatures, chemicals and ultraviolet radiation.
One type of skirt previously constructed from silicone rubber is made by collecting and cutting bunches of the filaments from sheets which contain solid border regions and from which slit filaments extend, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,395. The bunches are wrapped with a rubber band and which band, in turn, is used to secure the skirt to a lure.
Another type of skirt assembled from the material is formed by coating a solid fringe border with a room temperature vulcanization (RTV) adhesive and hand rolling the border upon itself to form a tubular end piece and from which the filaments extend. The tubular end, in turn, is fitted to a lure. An example of one such skirt is shown at U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,297.
A particular difficulty in manufacturing the later skirts arises from the tedious necessity of having to hand roll the material. The RTV adhesive also requires a relatively long curing time and the squeezing of adhesive from the material can create difficulties which effect production yields. Consequently, the skirts are relatively costly to manufacture.
A further shortcoming of available plastisol and band retained skirts is the unavailability of a mechanism for readily supporting rattle chambers and other lure dressings or accessories at the skirt and/or lure.
The improved silicone rubber skirts of the present invention were developed to overcome the foregoing deficiencies of available skirt dressings and which skirts also provide a silicone rubber core piece. Stranded sections of silicone sheeting are wrapped and bonded to the core and which core also retains the finished skirt to a lure.
Appendages at the core separately support rattle chambers and various other accessory lure dressings. Filament strands may also extend from the core. The filaments of the core and wrapped skirt can also include appendages or be cut to provide wavy or curlicue edges. The core supported skirts are readily fabricated over a wrapping mandrel having pin retainers which mate to apertures at the wrapped skirt blank and restrain a rolled skirt as the adhesive cures. A separate winged elastomer band can also mount over the wrapped skirt to facilitate curing.